onsdag 25. juli 2018

Britain’s Royal Air Force
(RAF) is hoping its next generation of Protector remotely piloted air
vehicles will be able to fly as freely above the UK as the current
generation of Reapers can over the Middle East war zones.

A ground-breaking July 10-11
transatlantic flight from Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, to the Royal
International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford of 24 hr. and 2 min.
saw General Atomics’ SkyGuardian/Certified Predator B—the platform
expected to evolve into the Protector—prove it could mix it up with
commercial airline traffic over the North Atlantic. Tactical use of
airspace by regulators and air traffic controllers enabled
the SkyGuardian to enter British airspace with tracts opening
ahead of it and closing behind it.

Two crews, working 12-hr.
shifts, monitored the SkyGuardian’s flight path through satellite
control, another first for UK airspace, before giving the green light to
touch down at Fairford using its auto-land capability.

General
Atomics’ SkyGuardian forms the basis of the RAF’s
Protector UAS

SkyGuardian’s
Atlantic crossing was the first by a MALE unmanned platform

UK is purchasing 16
Protectors but has options through Foreign Military Sales for
another 10

The RAF is the lead customer
for the platform and is funded to purchase 16, with service entry
expected in the early 2020s—officials are not being specific.
However, the government’s National Security Capability Review, published
in March suggested the aircraft would be “introduced by mid-2024.”
Initial operating capability is planned for 2023. The UK has been heavily
involved in the Protector’s development; RAF engineers have been embedded
with General Atomics in San Diego for four years, working on the program
to ensure it will meet the requirements of the UK’s Military Aviation
Authority (MAA).

With that certification, it is
hoped the platform will be able to operate in the UK with gradually
increasing freedom.

“The game-changing element of
this platform is that it is certifiable,” said Air Vice Marshal Julian
Young, chief of materiel for fixed-wing aviation at the UK’s Defense
Equipment & Support procurement agency, speaking at
RAF Fairford.

“That’s not a given, we have
got to work hard to certify it through the MAA, but that is what it
is designed to do,” he explains.

The UK has
10 MQ-9 Reapers, which it purchased to meet an urgent
operational requirement for operations in Afghanistan. Today, they are
operating over Iraq and Syria, but none is ever likely to operate in UK
airspace, although French and Italian Reapers have flown in their
national airspaces.

Last year, a French Reaper
supported security operations over Paris during the July 14 Bastille Day
celebrations.

The SkyGuardian still had more than 16 hr.
of fuel when it touched down at RAF Fairford from Grand Forks, North
Dakota. Credit: Ted Carlson/General Atomics

The UK wants
that freedom to maneuver with Protector, supporting emergency services at
home and even self-deploying them overseas rather than airlifting them in
a box like now.

The RAF and UK
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are working to allow it, but documents
published by the website Drone
Wars in February have revealed the process has not been
as smooth as RAF commanders might have liked. The CAA regulator
still has to be convinced the technologies are sufficiently developed for
unmanned and manned systems to operate together.

Evidence
provided by General Atomics to a UK parliamentary defense committee says
the Protectors will be fitted to accommodate its due-regard radar but not
with it, “denying one of its key enabling capabilities, a sense-and-avoid
system,” the company states.

The Protectors
will have Traffic-Alert Collision Avoidance Systems and automatic
dependent surveillance—broadcast “In/Out,” but without the
radar “it will prove impossible for the RAF to realize the platforms full
potential,” the written evidence states.

However, the RAF
and General Atomics hope the flight helped to sway the regulators’
thinking.

“This flight is
relatively routine; we are just landing in a different location,” said
Jonny King, vice president of General Atomics in the UK.

Entry into
service has been pushed to the right, although RAF officials point out
this is not a reflection of the program or the platform. Part of the
delay has been driven by an adjustment in RAF priorities, possibly
financially driven as detailed by General Atomics in its statements to
Parliament. The program also has been subjected to a “financial review,”
and a “re-baselining,” according to data published by the defense
ministry at the beginning of July. The RAF is mulling not only how to
achieve a seamless transition to the Protector from the Reaper, but also
to get the “most bang for their buck,” out of the existing Reaper fleet,
RAF officers told Aviation Week.

The UK has
invested £100 million ($131 million) in the program to enable UK-specific
capabilities, more of which will be added over time as the RAF will be
the design authority for the aircraft.

As well as
adding UK weapons such as the Raytheon Paveway IV and MBDA Brimstone,
the UK is installing Skynet X-band satellite communications and
backup Inmarsat satcom systems. The UK also is including
Leonardo’s SAGE Electronic Support Measures system to be fitted on each
side of the ventral fin. Leonardo also sees possibilities for integrating
its Misys directed-infrared countermeasure
and BriteCloud active decoy.